THE HIGH Court yesterday rejected the State’s application to come off record as the legal representative of a religious order being sued by a man who claims he was sexually abused while he was a resident of a care facility for those with special needs.
The Chief State Solicitor’s Office said it could no longer represent the Hospitaller Order of St John of God, which ran the facility, in a High Court action taken by “a vulnerable young person” because the order had failed until very recently to furnish it with “crucial and material” information for the defence of the case.
It said this information was received in mid-March, and the case is listed for hearing early next month. It said this failure had eroded the solicitor-client relationship, and it wished to be allowed to come off record.
The St John of God’s order, which denies the claims, in opposing the application, said any perceived failure to provide information was “inadvertent and in no way deliberate”.
Yesterday, at the High Court, Ms Justice Mary Irvine dismissed the application to come off record on grounds including there was nothing before the court to suggest the defence of the action had been undermined by the failure to provide the information until late in the day.
The man claims the order was negligent and in breach of its duty of care towards him as a result of being violently sexually assaulted by another resident.